Salvatore Scibona

Salvatore Scibona was featured in The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 Fiction Issue. His story, “The Kid,” appeared in the June 14 & 21, 2010 issue.

When were you born?

June 2, 1975.

Where?

Cleveland, Ohio.

Where do you live now?

Provincetown, Massachusetts.

What was the first piece of fiction you read that had an impact on you?

“Where the Red Fern Grows,” by Wilson Rawls.

How long did it take you to write your first book?

Ten years.

Did you ever consider not becoming a writer?

I tried, I try, not to focus on “becoming a writer”—which seems to me a seductive fantasy that gets in the way of writing. I always wanted to write. I never considered not writing.

What, in your opinion, makes a piece of fiction work?

Word choice. The ability of the book to exceed its premise. The impression of a complete, invented world. Control of the instrument (language). Faith in the unconscious. The ability, as Joan Didion says, “to love and to remain indifferent.”

What was the inspiration for the piece included in the “20 Under 40” series?

Last summer, in the Hamburg airport, I saw a young boy at a ticket counter, sobbing. He seemed unexceptional until I realized that the women trying to comfort him were not his guardians, did not know him, and could not figure out what language he was speaking. Several of us did our best to find a parent, but we failed. Everyone around him was trying to help him in some way, but he could not be consoled and only kept crying. He was bottomlessly terrified, and dozens of strangers seemed to feel his feelings whether they wanted to or not. After about a half hour, a Lufthansa agent and I walked him down the concourse, following where he pointed, but he didn’t seem to know where he was going. Then the clerk took him to the other side of security, hoping that someone might be awaiting him in the baggage claim. I have no idea what became of him. I never saw him again.